Sesame Soba Karaage Lunch Box
Sesame Soba Karaage Bento Recipe
I am using Ikea’s 365+ rectangular lunch box with three inner compartments. You can use any microwave-safe lunchbox with a similar 1-litre capacity.
This lunch box keeps well at room temperature for half a day. If placed in the fridge, microwave the chicken karaage to warm it up before eating. The soba noodles can be enjoyed as a cold noodle or at room temperature.
Ingredients:
SESAME SOBA NOODLES
- 50g dried soba noodles
- 1 tbsp Japanese goma (sesame) salad dressing use half-calorie version for lower carbs
- 1 tsp light soy sauce to taste
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/4 peeled carrot shredded
- half bell pepper (capsicum) sliced to long thin strips
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp chopped spring onions
- 1/8 tsp garlic salt to taste
- pepper powder to taste
- soba cooking water use 1 tbsp at a time as needed
REST OF THE LUNCH BOX
- 200g cooked chicken karaage see cooking note below
- 2 serving of salad greeens
- halved cherry tomatoes & thinly sliced cucumber
- 1 ramen egg halved
- lemon wedges
Directions:
- Cook soba noodles. Bring a pot of water to boil, add soba and cook according to package instructions. Drain noodles in a colander and cool down under running tap water. Reserve half cup of soba cooking water.
- Make sesame soba noodles. In a large bowl, add goma salad dressing, light soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir with a spatula to mix well. Then add cooked soba, carrot, bell pepper, sesame seeds, spring onions, garlic salt & pepper. Toss to coat everything evenly in the sauce, adding soba cooking water to bind everything together. Season to taste.
- Assemble Lunch Box. Divide the sesame soba noodles, chicken karaage and salad equally among two lunch boxes (I’m using Ikea’s 1-litre 365 lunchbox).
Cooking Note(s):
- Chicken karaage. Buy cooked karaage from the supermarket deli OR bake/deep fry frozen karaage according to the packaging instructions. You can also make karaage from scratch if you have time.
- Salad dressing. I didn’t have a salad dressing on the day I packed this bento, so I just squeezed some lemon juice over the salad.
Pages: 1 2
I always love your lunch box ideas…can easily tell that you prepare them not only with skills, but also lots of love. This one is no exception!
Meal prep makes food prep/cooking on the day itself so much easier. But meal prep day itself is a chore (for me, it is a chore but still have to do). How many meal prep days do you have? I have 2 major ones – one over the weekend (typically Sat) to cater for Mon-Tues; and another one mid-week to cover Wed-Fri.
Wow u r systematic! I only have one fixed meal prep a week – for “salad bar”. For cooked food, it depends on my mood. If my family member is doing night shift the following week, I’d do meal prep on Sunday.
Hi do you cook and prepare everything on the morning or the day before?